On the eve of the second trial over its painkiller Vioxx, drug giant Merck & Co on Friday sought to reassure investors that it has the money and determination to fight the mounting lawsuits and liability over the withdrawn drug.
"We are in this for the long haul. We have both the resources and the resolve to address these cases one by one over many years," Kenneth Frazier, Merck's general counsel and senior vice president, told reporters during a late-morning conference call.
"Merck's future is both secure and promising," he said.
Analysts have estimated Merck's liability at anywhere from several billion dollars up to US$50 billion.
Frazier seemed to backpedal slightly on statements he and Merck spokespeople made last month indicating the company might settle some lawsuits involving a relatively small number of Vioxx users believed to have had limited heart risk factors and to have taken the drug for 18 months or more.
"We will have to make decisions about what's the right way to proceed with those cases," Frazier said, but he also said several times that Merck will fight each case individually.
Merck pulled Vioxx from the market last September after research linked the popular arthritis drug to increased risk of heart attack and stroke after 18 months use, although some plaintiff attorneys and doctors say the risk began rising after much shorter use.
Frazier said the "very capable legal team" representing Merck in a trial starting Monday in Atlantic City would stick with the company strategy of presenting "sound, reliable evidence" to convince the jury that Vioxx did not cause the plaintiff's heart attack. He said the plaintiff, Frederick Humeston of Boise, Idaho, who survived the heart attack four years ago, had multiple cardiac risk factors and only took Vioxx intermittently.
Frazier said a major financial rating agency, which he did not identify, recently affirmed Merck's financial strength.
He said that will allow the company to continue investing in research on future drugs.
RECYCLE: Taiwan would aid manufacturers in refining rare earths from discarded appliances, which would fit the nation’s circular economy goals, minister Kung said Taiwan would work with the US and Japan on a proposed cooperation initiative in response to Beijing’s newly announced rare earth export curbs, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday. China last week announced new restrictions requiring companies to obtain export licenses if their products contain more than 0.1 percent of Chinese-origin rare earths by value. US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent on Wednesday responded by saying that Beijing was “unreliable” in its rare earths exports, adding that the US would “neither be commanded, nor controlled” by China, several media outlets reported. Japanese Minister of Finance Katsunobu Kato yesterday also
Taiwan’s rapidly aging population is fueling a sharp increase in homes occupied solely by elderly people, a trend that is reshaping the nation’s housing market and social fabric, real-estate brokers said yesterday. About 850,000 residences were occupied by elderly people in the first quarter, including 655,000 that housed only one resident, the Ministry of the Interior said. The figures have nearly doubled from a decade earlier, Great Home Realty Co (大家房屋) said, as people aged 65 and older now make up 20.8 percent of the population. “The so-called silver tsunami represents more than just a demographic shift — it could fundamentally redefine the
China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空) said it expects peak season effects in the fourth quarter to continue to boost demand for passenger flights and cargo services, after reporting its second-highest-ever September sales on Monday. The carrier said it posted NT$15.88 billion (US$517 million) in consolidated sales last month, trailing only September last year’s NT$16.01 billion. Last month, CAL generated NT$8.77 billion from its passenger flights and NT$5.37 billion from cargo services, it said. In the first nine months of this year, the carrier posted NT$154.93 billion in cumulative sales, up 2.62 percent from a year earlier, marking the second-highest level for the January-September
‘DRAMATIC AND POSITIVE’: AI growth would be better than it previously forecast and would stay robust even if the Chinese market became inaccessible for customers, it said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday raised its full-year revenue growth outlook after posting record profit for last quarter, despite growing market concern about an artificial intelligence (AI) bubble. The company said it expects revenue to expand about 35 percent year-on-year, driven mainly by faster-than-expected demand for leading-edge chips for AI applications. The world’s biggest contract chipmaker in July projected that revenue this year would expand about 30 percent in US dollar terms. The company also slightly hiked its capital expenditure for this year to US$40 billion to US$42 billion, compared with US$38 billion to US$42 billion it set previously. “AI demand actually
RSS